This is Spencer Quinn’s first in a mystery novel series featuring Chet (dog) and Bernie (human). Set in the US Southwest, the story is told by Chet from his point of view. Chet flunked out of K-9 police school and Bernie is barely scraping by as a private detective. Bernie and Chet work together as an investigation team, but neither of them has a superior or supernatural method of communication with the other.
Chet understands human language, both verbal and body, better than Bernie realizes. But he can’t always convey what he knows to him. Unlike Randolph, say, in the Bull Moose Dog Run series, he can’t read and doesn’t know how to use human language to communicate. He does dog type communication – barking, wagging tail, bristling neck hair, growling. Bernie can misinterpret these signals as Chet wanting a toy or Chet just barking for no good reason. And Chet, being a dog, sometimes misses the significance of something in the human realm so doesn’t indicate its importance to Bernie. I found myself thinking, “come on Chet, that’s important – bark! Tell Bernie!” And Chet would just think, “hmm, that kinda reminds me of something” and go back to licking himself or having a nap.
One of the jacket blurbs says you don’t have to be a dog lover to enjoy the story. Being a dog lover, I really liked the insights into dog behaviour from a dog point of view. You get to know Bernie and other people and dogs, all through Chet’s eyes. If you didn’t particularly like dogs, I don’t know what it would be like reading a story from the perspective of the dog.
The plot centres on a missing girl, so there are not a lot of doggy elements in the story itself. You meet a neighbour dog and his situation gives you some things to think about. And there’s a trip to a municipal animal shelter – also a lot to think about.
Chet and Bernie both can figure things out and are clever, but not overly so. I don’t really know what goes through a dog’s mind, but Chet’s thoughts seem pretty believable. He comes across as a regular smart and galumphing type dog. So does Bernie.
The book is being turned into a movie. I can see that. I don’t know how they’d translate the minutiae of a dog’s thought processes to the screen, but I’d be willing to watch and find out. There’s a good who-dun-it story in the book, aside from the pleasure of reading something from a likeable dog’s point of view.
Published New York: Atria Books (Div. Simon & Schuster) 2009
